8 East Post-Op Day 4

Saturday, September 1, 2012-the 4^th day following the PA band surgery.

Diego woke up around 3:30am, the nurse came in to take vitals and gave him Tylenol and Codeine.  He slept until 7:30am and once he was awake he quickly recognized our pattern for the day would be to eat, drink, walk, lung exercises, vitals, medicine, and repeat. 

We were sent downstairs with Diego and a wheelchair for an x-ray around 9:30am.  The nurse told Diego to walk for as long as he could then he could ride in the wheel chair when he was tired.  After we finished with the x-ray, Cesar and I took Diego outside to the garden for some fresh air.  This was the first time he had been outside in 4 days.

 

We returned to his room for an EKG at 10:30am and around 10:45-Dr. del Nido stopped by.  He said they will want another echo before being discharged, possibly on Monday.  We will then need to schedule another appointment a few days later to come back in for a check-up/echo before returning home.  The x-ray showed that the bottom of his lungs were still collapsed which meant we needed to aggressively continue with our daily routine of eating, drinking, walking and lung exercises.  By the end of the day, I could see huge strides in Diego’s body functioning independently. He was still struggling with pain, gas and nausea, but he was definitely progressing.